For many Floridians, living in the tropics just isn’t enough. Many homeowners love to bring the outside in and infuse their homes with a taste of the tropics.“The people who live down here love to put in tropical touches,” says Janet Graham, an interior...

Florida's primary is Aug. 26.
The League of Women Voters of The Villages/Tri-County Area will sponsor a judicial meet and greet from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 2 at the Leesburg Public Library, 100 E. Main St.
Candidates for judicial races including judgeships...

The Crealdé School of Art moves into its 40th year with a full slate of professional and student artist exhibitions, old favorites such as the annual holiday sale and special exhibits saluting the school's anniversary, Lake Apopka farmworkers and...

MOUNT DORA — When artist Kimberly Watters reads, she doesn't see the words the way most people do. She is visually dyslexic, meaning words in the text might blur or jitter.
Surprisingly, she was delighted to receive the diagnosis.
"I said, 'You...

Known for its white sand beaches and thousands of miles of coastline, there is more to Florida's sun-filled fun than just the beach. With a diverse selection of underwater environments, Florida offers some of the world's best scuba diving. From the...

MARINELAND, Fla. - Her eyes are cloudy now, a blueish-gray haze blocking out some of the sunlight that glints off the water in her habitat. She doesn't always move as nimbly as the dozen other dolphins sharing her space, either. But that's OK, because...

We still can't see a whole lot of what's going up at Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Diagon Alley at Universal Studios. That construction wall is maddening to anxious Potterheads, who must wait until summer for unveiling and exploration.
Park officials...

Atlantis is ready for its close-up.
The orbiter that made the final flight of NASA's shuttle program now is in a new $100-million home created for it at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The 90,000-square foot attraction — called Space Shuttle...

Downtown Orlando's iconic round building will soon be torn down — most of it, anyway.
The old American Federal Building, which is owned by the city, will be demolished to make way for the plaza of the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. At...

When the Legoland Florida water park reopens for the season on Saturday, guests will see even more figures and scenes constructed of Lego bricks. Two million bricks have been added since the Winter Haven water park opened last year, bringing its total...

Everything must go. That thought drove me as I cleared out my parents' home of 50 years. Little did I know, once everything was gone, the real work would begin.
The ultimate goal was to get the 1,700-square-foot, ranch house emptied, fixed up and on...

A smartphone app that recently won early rounds of funding in Orlando aims to help Floridians check out the hurricane safety of their homes in much the same way they look up vehicles' crash-test results.
The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes awarded a team...

The Orange County School Board has agreed to pay more than $375,000 to settle two lawsuits with a former roofing contractor.
The settlement with Curtis Hodges, president of Hodges Brothers Roofing in Orlando, will initially cost the district...

Jason Miller has the dream job of many 9-year-olds: He builds things with Lego blocks for a living.
The 27-year-old Orlando resident has been fascinated by the colorful building bricks since he was a child. So after Merlin Entertainments Group...

Is it that daunting to be a woman?
As a man, maybe I can't fully grasp the tangled emotions of guilt, courage, exhilaration, cynicism and terror of the nine women of "9 Parts of Desire."
But the actresses depicting women who have all been...

Like most journalists, I get bombarded with emails from companies trying to tempt me to write about them. Sometimes this works. More often the misguided missives are useless distractions. Among the lamest are those where the supposed news peg is an...

Players can work out, lift weights and hone their basketball skills between tweets this summer.Stan Van Gundy is trying to get better by exercising his mind and understanding what makes people tick.Van Gundy has seen two psychologists --- and he's only...

Another piece of Volusia County’s artificial reef fell gracefully into place Friday morning as a 195-foot steel barge sunk 65 feet of water about nine miles off the coast of Ponce Inlet. The barge is the largest of the artificial reefs submerged...